Answers to Themes Questions
The Social Network can't be taken as the literal record of events, which ultimately involved Zuckerberg being sued by
his partners and competitors. Clearly Sorkin and Fincher had higher aspirations for their film. With surgical
precision, exhilarating insight and considerable storytelling flair, they make Zuckerberg both a metaphor and a lens
through which to understand contemporary culture. Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
Answer the following questions.
Sorkin: 'The themes of the movie are as old as storytelling itself: friendship, loyalty, jealousy, class, power, betrayal,
money, envy, social status… It's a story that if Aeschylus were alive today, he'd have written; Shakespeare would have
written; Paddy Chayefsky would have written. Fortunately for me, none of those people were available, so I got to
write it.'
1. Explain how the movie addresses each of the themes Sorkin lists.
friendship: the film explores the nature of the friendship between Mark and Eduardo and between Mark and Sean.
His friendship with Mark clearly means more to Eduardo than to Mark; Eduardo on at least two occasions allows Mark
to over-rule his scruples (the algorithm and the Phoenix database). But just as he does not allow Mark's exclusion
from the Phoenix to stop him wanting to join, so Mark does not allows his friendship with Eduardo to interfere with
what he sees is best for his new company. Neither of them puts this friendship first. There is an underlying element
of resentment in the friendship; Eduardo is too often Mark's 'conscience', too often the voice of caution, and Mark is
shown getting irritated by this. "Wardo. I said I know." [14]
The friendship between Sean and Mark is of a different kind. Mark sees in Sean someone who shares his vision, who
has a similarly anarchic view of the world. Sean is a soul-mate – but one who is a bit too much the playboy to fit
comfortably in Mark's world for too long.
The end shows Mark sitting alone – first in the Facebook offices, having told Sean to go home [58], and then in the
deposition room, trying to friend Erica [59]. By so doing, it suggests that what Mark has lost perhaps outweighs what
he has achieved – great success and wealth at the expense of any real human closeness.
My friend Eduardo…
I went to my friend for the money because that’s who I wanted to be partners with. Eduardo was the president
of the Harvard Investors Association and he was my best friend.
Because I’m not suing him for cheating on his final exam. That’s not what friends do.
And it certainly wasn’t the act of a friend.
I was your only friend. You had one friend.
loyalty: Eduardo sets great store by loyalty – he is loyal to Mark until the bitter end, accepting Mark's decisions and
being supportive. "I wanted to show I was a team player." But he can never fully accept Mark's vision, and so his
loyalty has its limitations. When he freezes the account, he demonstrates to Mark that his loyalty has failed.
power: the film has quite interesting things to say about power. The twins use "the considerable resources" at their
disposal to try to destroy Mark; the Harvard president castigates them for the misuse of their social power by getting a
meeting with him.
Sean uses his newly minted power as the day-to-day organiser of the Palo Alto house to humiliate and then destroy
Eduardo. He also persuades Mark to use his power as the CEO of the most desirable business on the block to get
revenge on those who had ousted him from his own company. All of these can be seen as the misuse of power.
Mark more or less abdicates his power to Sean, but is finally forced to accept that the 'buck stops here'.
betrayal: According to Andrew Garfield, the film is about 'betrayal by your brother. It is Cain and Abel.' From
Eduardo's perspective, Mark has betrayed their friendship and their original agreement. Mark, if he thought about it in
those terms, would argue that Eduardo betrayed him by not believing in him enough. Fincher: "I think that they both
betray each other." The Winklevi argue that Mark betrays their original agreement – but he can hardly be accused of
betraying them, since he owes them nothing.
money: Mark demonstrates a supreme lack of interest in money for its own sake – he needs it only for his website.
His original share of the company is 70% but he allows it to be diluted to 51% as more people come on board.
I didn’t sell it. I uploaded it for free.
ED: Mark doesn’t care about money and he needs to be protected.
He is in no hurry to make money from Facebook, and resists Eduardo's wish to advertise. Eduardo demonstrates the
businessman's wish to show a profit – this is where the two become unstuck.
Settle an argument for us, would you? I say it’s time to start making money from Thefacebook but Mark
doesn’t want advertising. Who’s right?
However, he is unforgiving when Eduardo risks the survival of the company by his childish act of freezing the account.
Sean seems not that interested in money either – his "billion dollar valuation" seems more an ideal than a wish to get
rich; he is driven more by the desire to show the rest of the corporate world that kids can do it on their own.
Broke. There’s not a lot of money in free music. [continued]